Royal Athlete ~ 1995 Grand National Winner
The photo above shows jockey Jason Titley riding the 1995 Grand National winner Royal Athlete.
Royal Athlete was the Jenny Pitman trained, 40-1 outsider who romped home to win the 148th Grand National in 1995. Despite his smooth progress on the second circuit of the Aintree course the 1995 race proved, once again, that the race is as much about speed and fluency as of power and endurance.
Royal Athlete, a 12-year-old chestnut gelding, turned out to be a more unlikely winner than he looked as his jockey eased him past the finishing post. His owner Gary Johnson said "I bought him with a leg problem, I'm not saying how much he cost, but it was peanuts'.
On the day the race conditions were just about perfect and Jason Titley, Royal Athlete's jockey kept him back under the radar in the early stages, while most eyes were watching the progress of Master Oats, bidding to become the first horse since Golden Miller in 1934 to win the Gold Cup and the National in the same season.
On the second circuit Royal Athlete had moved up the field so that he jumped neck-and-neck with Master Oats but it was Royal Athlete who looked cool and comfortable as they galloped easily up to the Canal Turn, holding formation despite the distraction of loose horses.
At Valentine's, Royal Athlete and Master Oats were four lengths clear but while Master Oats began to labour Royal Athlete was willing to cruise the last five fences.
Royal Athlete died in May 2003 at the age of 20.
Jockey ~ Jason Titley
Jason Titley, the Irish, Clare based jockey was 24 years old when he won the Aintree Grand National on Royal Athlete for Jenny Pitman.
Despite it being his first attempt at the Grand National he had previously won the Irish National, the Ladbroke, Galway and Coral Hurdles before his 1995 victory.
It was obviously a time of 'firsts' for Titley who later said "Royal Athlete was one of my first rides for Jenny Pitman and I walked the course with her the previous day."
Titley rode in three more Grand Nationals but wasn't successful in any of them - Bavard Dieu in 1996 where he was unseated at the first fence, Nahthen Lad in 1997 where he placed 9th and finally in 2000 on Micko’s Dream but fell at the first.
Trainer ~ Jenny Pitman OBE
Known as the first lady of horse racing Jenny Pitman was just 14 months old when she was first put on a pony. When she was 15 her father George Harvey, who trained point-to-pointers, gave his daughter her first ride in a race on Dan Archer. Just before her 15th birthday Pitman left school taking up a position as a stable girl at Brooksby Grange, where she stayed for two years until moving to a stable in Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire.
In the 70s, Jenny Pitman opened her own stables and began her career as a national hunt racehorse trainer. At the time female trainers were virtually unheard of but true determination along with her toughness and plain speaking helped her to trail blaze in the very tough world of horse racing.
She went on to become an unrivalled success as a trainer. Her horses have won two Grand Nationals and she was the first woman to train a Cheltenham Gold Cup Winner in 1984 and went on to win the race a second time in 1991.
She was awarded the OBE in 1998 and trained her last winner in 1999.
